Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/willowick-golf-course/)
Development is on the horizon for some of the last remaining open space between Santa Ana and Garden Grove, and resident complaints are mounting about City of Santa Ana efforts to shut out the public while exclusively considering private companies’ bids to build on the area.
Marlha Sanchez, longtime resident of Santa Ana, writes that city officials are ignoring residents need for more parkland by supporting the sale of a public golf course in favor of special interests.
Flor Barajas, Deputy Director at OCCORD, argues that Willowick Golf Course, currently zoned as Open Space, could be developed as a regional park adjourning Santa Ana and Garden Grove. Barajas writes that public lands should not be sold to developers but instead elected officials should protect this asset for future generations.
The city councils’ action struck down hopes for a park between two park-poor cities and stirred opponents’ fears developers will turn the property into an urban hotspot and price working-class families and Latinos out of the surrounding neighborhoods.
The two cities have signed an agreement to begin discussions over the 102-acre golf course owned by Garden Grove but located in the city of Santa Ana.